ZooScope

Category: Year: 1999

  • Babar, King of the Elephants. Dir. Raymond Jafelice, Alliance Communications. 1999.

    Babar: King of the Elephants (1999) is an animated film adaptation of Jean de Brunhoff’s popular children’s books. Written and directed by Raymond Jafelice the story tells the tale of Babar who witnesses his mother killed by poachers. Babar manages to escape and leaves the jungle (an unnamed fictitious South African jungle) , visits the…

  • A Bug’s Life. Dir. Dave Foley. Walt Disney Pictures. 1999.

    The notion of capitalism is undeniably present in A Bug’s Life [1] and is a vehicle that allows the ants and grasshoppers to be considered anthropomorphic beings. Hence the parallel to the class system that exists in human society: ants being the underclass and grasshoppers being the bourgeoisie, exploiting the ants for theirlabour. Thus, A…

  • Walking With Dinosaurs: Time of the Titans. Dir. Tim Haines and Jasper James. BBC Worldwide. 1999.

    Walking With Dinosaurs: Time of the Titans is a 1999 BBC animated documentary that brought together paleontologists and animators alike with the aim of bringing the age of dinosaurs to life, giving the audience a feeling of what it was like when dinosaurs roamed the earth. This particular episode is part two of a six episode…

  • American Beauty. Dir. Sam Mendes. DreamWorks Pictures. 1999.

    Despite its iconic lusty red petals, Sam Mendes’ American Beauty is abundant with other striking images – one of which is a dead bird, lying on the grass of the school grounds, under the lens of Ricky Fitts’ camera. The bird becomes part of a vision of freedom and liberation, in a film where most of the…

  • Tarzan. Dir. Kevin Lima, Chris Buck. Disney. 1999.

    Tarzan-Two Worlds Tarzan is best characterised by the title of the film’s opening song Two Worlds, sang by Phil Collins. This is the story of flora and fauna, represented by gorillas, colliding with mankind in Disney’s 1999 classic. The film sees an orphaned human baby in Africa adopted into an ape family by a Gorilla mother. The…

  • Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. 20th Century Fox. 1999.

    One of the most important scenes in David Fincher’s Fight Club[1] is when The Narrator meets his ‘power animal’ in the cave whilst in meditation. Although it’s only a very short sequence, the penguin represents changes we see in The Narrator’s character throughout the film, which are relevant to the dramatic plot twist near the end. The…

  • Stuart Little. Dir. Rob Minkoff. Columbia Pictures. 1999.

    Columbia Pictures’ Stuart Little (1999) follows the Little family’s adoption of an anthropomorphic mouse, Stuart, whose debonair mannerisms and soaring intelligence allow the family to embrace him as an addition to their brood. Whilst Eleanor and Frederick Little’s son George does not conceal his initial doubts regarding the adoption of a rodent, the film presents the notion…

  • The Green Mile. Dir. Frank Darabont. Warner Bros. Pictures. 1999.

    Adapted from Stephen King’s novel, The Green Mile tells the story of Paul Edgecomb, a prison guard on Death Row, and his relationship with John Coffey, a convicted of the rape and murder of two young girls. Large and burly in his physique, John arrives at the ‘Green Mile’ as a timid, deeply emotional man who doesn’t…

  • All The Little Animals. Dir. Jeremy Thomas. Lionsgate. 1999.

    Bobby Platt is twenty-four  with learning difficulties  due to a car accident from his childhood  which he refers to as “the most important  thing about me”. Bobby’s stepfather, “The Fat” is the archetypal bully: aggressive and unsympathetic even at the death of Bobby’s mother. After her funeral The Fat instructs Bobby to sign over the…